


One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

by alchemise



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Drinking, Gen, Team Bonding, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:35:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemise/pseuds/alchemise
Summary: Jessica poured herself another drink and downed it.
Relationships: Luke Cage & Jessica Jones & Matt Murdock & Danny Rand
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sholio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/gifts).



Jessica poured herself another drink and downed it.

It was some shitty bourbon Matt had lying around, stashed in a cupboard but not exactly hidden in the back, so she figured he must occasionally partake himself. Not that he was doing much of that right now, with a bandage pressed to his shoulder and looking like he probably shouldn't stand up.

She was trying not to look in his direction though. Her brain kept shouting _too much blood_ at her. Not his, mostly. The good-sized puddle that she could swear was still growing on Matt's hardwood floor belonged to Danny and a head wound that was kind of freaking her out.

Luke was on it, taking care of things as he tended to do, so Jessica had escaped for a minute, needing something to take her mind off how badly things had almost gone. That thought made her hand shake as she raised the glass to her mouth again. _Things could have been much worse._

She didn't even hear Matt approach her from behind until he was almost at her side. _Fucking ninja._ Apparently he wasn't as bad off as she'd thought, although he was moving gingerly and holding his right arm with his left. There was a flicker of pain on his face, but other than that, he was as stoic as ever. She liked that about him.

"Pour me one?" He nodded at the bottle as he asked.

Jessica shrugged. "It's your crap booze."

Just as she started to unscrew the cap, he added, "There's a better bottle behind the canned goods."

Jessica gave him a look and went rummaging through the cupboard. Sure enough, there was a bottle of really rather decent whisky hiding in the back.

"For special occasions?" She didn't really care what the answer was but was just trying to fill the silence as she poured his drink and another one for herself. Both were generous pours.

"Something like that." He took the glass from her and drank most of it in one gulp.

Jessica didn't know what else to say and fiddled with her glass, trying to keep certain images out of her head.

"We'll be all right, you know." Matt didn't make it sound like a question. "Danny. All of us. We did what we had to."

Jessica shook her head. "What if we weren't though? All right? It was too close." She didn't know how to express what was bothering her about how things might have gone. She didn't even know why it was freaking her out so much. They'd done it: accomplished the mission. Innocent lives saved. And Matt was right, Danny might have lost a good amount of blood and probably had a concussion, but he was conscious and refused to go to the hospital. They’d definitely been worse off in the past, like at Midland Circle when they’d lost Matt, temporarily. _It had just been so fucking close, though_ : she couldn’t get the thought out of her head.

Matt managed to put his finger right on the pulse of the matter, saying with a bit of a rueful smile, "We still haven't quite figured out how not to be loners, huh?"

Jessica finished her drink, not acknowledging the truth in his words.

The thing was, they were pretty good at working together as a team. When it came to solving cases or fighting, at least most of the time. Their skills complemented each other, and they were sometimes capable of moving as one unit, graceful and competent at getting information out of an informant or taking down a gang of thugs. They were pretty badass, all things considered.

It was all the other shit—actually being a team, caring about each other, worrying over someone else's safety—that still needed some work.

The case had been Jessica’s idea. She hadn’t wanted to take it to the rest of them. She still preferred to do things herself if possible, but she hit a point where she’d had to admit she couldn’t do it alone.

It had started with a kid in the hospital: the niece of one of the people in Jessica’s building. The girl had OD’ed on something new, some party drug that was laced with some bad shit. And she wasn’t anywhere near the only kid to end up that way.

Jessica traced it to a middleman, and then hit a dead-end when the middleman turned up dead in the middle of Harlem, with no further leads. It caught Luke’s attention, though. When he started poking around and an entire warehouse filled with the drug went up in flames before he could even check into it, he talked her into bringing in Danny and Matt too.

The boss behind the operation worked with a brutal finality, ensuring that any way in was closed off immediately. But they hadn’t anticipated the connections of someone like Danny Rand. The tiniest mistake, a bit of missed real estate paperwork, connected the warehouse with an office in Brooklyn. It wasn’t a part of town any of them were very familiar with.

The new territory combined with the four of them still learning the best way to fight as a team had made things much harder than they should have been. And ultimately, much bloodier.

They’d succeeded, in the end, but hearing both Danny and Matt cry out in pain, while Luke did his best to protect them, and Jessica feeling like some wobbly fourth wheel, kept running through her head, over and over again.

“You going to bring me one of those?” Luke called out and broke through her reverie.

Jessica snapped out of the maudlin memories she’d gotten stuck in and looked at him. He raised his eyebrows expectantly. She supposed it was rude for her and Matt to bogart all the booze.

She poured a glass for Luke (and another for herself) and crossed the room to join him. Matt followed, after Jessica heard him top off his own. It looked like it was going to be that kind of night.

As she handed Luke his glass, she saw Danny blink at them. She had to admit he looked more alert than earlier. Maybe he really would be okay after some rest. She felt reassured yet resented that she was having to deal with such feelings. Except that she genuinely liked working with the three of them. She liked being in Matt’s apartment with them. She liked sharing a drink with them.

“Don’t I get one?” Danny winced at them, pouting slightly. It was so pathetic, Jessica almost went to pour him one.

Thankfully, Luke was made of stronger stuff. “You have a damn concussion. No booze for you.”

Danny looked like he grudgingly agreed. “Well then you all owe me one. Beers, tomorrow.” He winced again. “Or maybe sometime next week.”

Jessica didn’t think a team bar outing was the worst idea she’d ever heard, although she could also imagine how it could go terribly wrong, knowing them. “I’ve been banned from most of the bars in my neighborhood. And the ones that still allow me in aren’t exactly establishments I’d recommend.”

Luke snorted. “I don’t think I want to take you around Harlem then.”

“Fair.”

A small smile briefly appeared on Matt’s lips. It was a nice look. “I’ll take you all to Josie’s. You’ll fit in great.”

Jessica tapped his glass with her own. Maybe they were figuring this whole team thing out after all.


End file.
